Osias

(Image above is of Osias)

Damn, I'm sore, I thought to myself, rubbing my shoulder muscles with a grimace. The stress of absorbing this pack into my own was taking a toll on both my mental and physical well being. The fact that I have yet to mate to help rid me of at least a small amount of stress only adds to my distress. I can't think of another Alpha that has ever dealt with this much shit after less than a year of having this title, but my Father decided that it was a perfect time to pass the torch to me.

Asshole.

I glanced out of the large window to the side of my desk, my light blue eyes lazily trailing from the orange-purple of the evening sunset to the long line of cars waiting to enter the gate of the pack house. I let out a deep growl of frustration at the idea that all of these new members who I barely know would be joining my pack. Infiltrating my family.

"Sam, call a construction company. We are going to need to expand the pack house as soon as possible." I spoke, my deep voice causing my assistant to jump in her seat from across the room and look over at me with wide eyes.

"I thought that we decided they would just take all of the extra rooms to spare the expense?..." she replied, her tone laced with confusion. I simply rolled my eyes and snapped my head towards her, my eyes flashing a bright gold with irritation.

"I changed my damn mind. You are my assistant, not my advisor. Do as I say, and don't bitch about it." I growled out in my Alpha voice, clenching my jaw and standing up to my full height of 6'5'. It pissed me off when those underneath me didn't do as I told them. You could say I have a slight anger issue.

In the midst of my rage, I quickly left the room, slamming the large mahogany door behind me before walking down a small hallway to my room in the Alpha's wing of my pack house. Upon arrival I lifted my hand, flipping the light switch on the wall and almost sighed in euphoria as the familiar sight of grey walls and my king sized bed was before me, but even the warmth of my oversized bedroom was not enough to calm me down. I walked over to my closet with an annoyed groan, hastily pulling my shirt over my head before glancing at the clock on my wall.

Fuck. Thirty minutes, I thought as I glanced around my walk-in closet for anything that I could wear to this ceremony. After a few minutes of rummaging around, I settled on a simple outfit of a fitted, black tank top, black jeans and black timberland boots. It wasn't anywhere near fancy, but it would have to do for the time being. Turning to the full-length mirror on one side of my closet, I lazily mussed my hair into a messy style before giving up on it and walking back out to the hallway, passing my office and opening the door that separates the Alpha's wing from the rest of the pack house.

"Alpha, we need to get down to the ballroom or we'll be late. I've been waiting for you." Said a voice next to me before I could even take one step into the hallway. Upon turning my head, my lips pull up into a crooked smirk as my eyes land on my Beta and best friend, Ortiz. He's slightly shorter than me with bright green eyes and a shock of black hair atop his freckled face.

"Shut up, fucker." I chuckle deeply, a small amount of my stress dissolving from me as I loosen up. "I'm going down now. I'm honestly just not in the mood for interaction with these new members just yet." I finish, rubbing my temples and falling into step beside him as we head towards the grand ballroom. He let out a short laugh before shaking his head at my comment.

"You need to cut out all of that cursing. When you meet your mate, they're going to want to slap you with how dirty your mouth is." he scolds playfully, although his words hold a hint of truth.

I shrugged to myself nonchalantly as I walk into the ballroom with Ortiz, cringing at the loud chatter and the amount of bodies inside of the large room, causing it to look unusually small. Groaning and bracing myself for all of the attention, I headed for the large stage in the front of the room, climbing the stairs quickly before taking the microphone from the holster. At least 350 faces immediately turned towards me and a chorus of "shh" went around the room. When the noise died down, I glanced at my Beta for assurance that it was time to begin. With a nod of his head I turned back to the microphone, clearing my throat and beginning the ceremony.

"I would like to welco-"

"Hurry up, we're late!" I was interrupted by a whisper that was easily picked up with everyone's enhanced hearing, causing everyone in the room to do a 360 turn. My eyes flickered towards the door in the back of the room, through which a large man was holding open the door for a much smaller, flustered, asian man who was clutching a black neck pillow to his chest. The smaller man glared at the larger man before hitting him with the pillow on his arm and moving away from the door.

The rest of the couple's argument I couldn't even see. I felt as if I was going both blind and deaf at the same time as the strong scent of vanilla and lavender hit my senses like a firetruck. My eyes suddenly blurred out the entire scene to focus on the boy who slipped into the room after the angry couple. He was even smaller than the asian man, dressed in an extremely oversized sweater

He was beyond beautiful. His features held an etherial daintiness which I had never come across in all of my life. I couldn't look away. I didn't want to look away. In the next moment, everything fell into place as my wolf came to the front of my consciousness and loudly growled out one word.

"Mate."

The last thing I saw was my mate's eyes widen as he registered the situation as well. Just as he turned to run, the world turned black as my wolf took over completely.

Berlin

"Oh no!" I yelped out, throwing my iPhone to the side in a panic and standing up from the floor where I was seated in front of the mirror to fix my hair. Just as I went to change the album from Adele to Lady Gaga, I noticed the time. Apparently I spent so much time in my own little world, an hour had already passed. I only had one minute to get to the ballroom for the induction ceremony!

I ran over to the mountain of moving boxes in the corner and went straight for the one labeled 'Max'. I quickly rummaged through it before grabbing one of his old, oversized sweaters that I used to steal all of the time when I was with him. Holding the soft fabric to my nose for a short moment, I inhaled deeply and gently lowered my shaking hands a moment later as I realized that it was already losing his masculine scent. Just the thought brought tears to my eyes once more, but I quickly suppressed them and tugged the sweater over my head, careful not to mess up my carefully styled hair.

"Dad! Papa!" I called out as I ran out of my room and down the hall to my parent's room. My Papa opened the door quickly with an alarmed expression, his hair extremely disheveled and his usually neat button-up shirt halfway undone. I suddenly heard a squeal belonging to my Dad from the other side of the door half a second later. He ducked underneath my Papa's arm with his neck pillow in his hands and began buttoning his pants as he raced down the hall.

"We're LATE!" he exclaimed, glaring at my Papa. "Next time, you're not getting any." he huffed and tapped his foot angrily.

"You're the one that asked for it." Papa laughed to himself and patted his mate's ass with a wink as he walked over to him. After a second of confusion, my face twisted into a disgusted expression when I realized what they must have been in the middle of. I shook my head to rid the thought from my mind before tugging gently on my Papa's arm.

"We have to go..." I said softly, biting my lip as I recalled what the doorman said about a punishment if we're absent.

My parents walked in front of me towards the ballroom, my Dad whisper-shouting to his mate as my Papa simply nodded his head absently with a smug smirk. I smiled slightly at the sight of them. I admired their relationship. My Dad is a drama queen, and exaggerates every little situation while Papa is more of a practical guy. They balanced each other out, and they were so in love that even when they argued you could see the admiration in their eyes.

When we reached the door of the ballroom, Papa reached out to grab the door handle, opening it. Apparently it was not fast enough for Dad, as he screeched out,

"Hurry up, we're late!"

The entire room turned to look at us. Everyone.

My face instantly became instantly flustered at the attention, and I slipped into the room as quietly and quickly as possible. I wanted to disappear at that moment more than I'd ever wanted to before. As I began to move further into the room and dispel the attention from myself, a strong but intoxicating scent came across my senses. It was a mixture of a light, masculine cologne and cinnamon rolls. My favorite food.

I scanned the room for the source of the delicious scent, until my eyes suddenly stuck to a man standing on a large stage with a microphone in his hand. It was him.

I knew what this meant. I was all too familiar with what it felt like to find your mate, but this time I was nowhere near as happy as I was when I found Max.

This time, I was terrified.

It was too soon.

I clutched at Max's sweater that hung from my small frame as my wolf whimpered softly in my mind, and with eyes full of tears and a heart full of sadness, I ran from the room as fast as my legs could carry me.

☯

Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment with your reaction to this chapter!

-Alex